SACO ”“ Trying to function with a full penalty box is rather like trying to box with one arm tied behind the back.

You can do it, but it makes life a whole lot harder.

Fortunately for Thornton Academy, one arm was enough, as despite having five different two man shortages to defend, the Golden Trojans managed to vanquish Scarborough, 5-2, Thursday at MHG Ice Centre.

Jon Pate and Dakota Matthews both scored twice, and C.J. Maksut chipped in a single goal, while goalie Jay Finch stopped 14 shots in a winning cause.

All of this came amid, or in spite of, a exceptionally busy night for Trojan penalty killers.

“We just had to get in front of the pucks,” said Pate, a senior co-captain, “and block all the shots we saw. We put three people down low for every puck that was behind the goal line, and just went for the puck.”

In the second period alone, the Trojans were continually shorthanded for nearly nine minutes, but escaped with just one goal allowed.

“Sometimes in hockey, you sometimes feel like the rink is starts to tilt down on you,” said Thornton coach Shawn Rousseau. “I felt like (calls) were going against us, so we had some kids who stopped moving their feet. But I think our guys responded to that and kept focused. It’s good to see a team do that.”

The Trojans, who have yet to score first in any of their three games to date, fell behind 1-0, when Scarborough freshman Jacob Gross scored at 5:46 of the first.

That was answered by Matthews less than five minutes later.

Pate followed with both of his goals, which put the Trojans up 3-1 with 9:07 gone in the second.

The first came at 2:16.

“I had an open lane to the net,” said Pate. “I just drove to the net. I didn’t know where the puck went, but it ended up in the back of the net.”

“It takes a lot of courage to drive the net, like that,” said Rousseau. “I think that was a tremendous goal. To find the ice behind the defenseman. It was a courageous goal scorer’s play.”

Just like his first, Pate’s second tally was a reward for venturing into the ice’s “dirty areas”.

It came while the Trojans were operating on a 5-on-3 of their own.

“We had a really good set up,” said Pate. “I had an open shot and I took it.”

The Red Storm eased to within a goal late in the period, but Thornton put down the clamps in the third.

Goals by Maksut and Matthews tucked the game safely away.

“What I’m most pleased with,” said Rousseau, “is that we met with some adversity, and it shows the true mettle of a team when you can battle through that and find ways to win.”

— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.